Wilt
by Homura Bakura
Summary: [complete, oneshots] The duel against Sergey wasn't the only thing she lost when she fell from the Duel Lane.
1. Chapter 1

Sora bit his lip as he peered around the corner. There were so many Security guards around here...they hadn't been here the last time he was in this area! The place was swarming with them—if he didn't get through their blockade soon...

His heart clenched and jaw tightened.

 _Don't worry...I'm coming, Yuzu..._

He ducked back behind the wall, pressing his back against it to feel the cold of the bricks through his shirt. He closed his eyes briefly and sucked in a steadying breath. This felt _weird_. Normally before going into a fight, he didn't feel scared at all. What was it about this that made him so nervous? Was it the numbers? No, he wasn't worried about that. He could take a million of these guys easy.

He swallowed as an image of Yuzu danced across the back of his eyes. Her gentle smile. The way that she got that determined look in her eye when she got her mind set to something and wasn't about to back down.

It was Yuzu. He was scared because there was someone in the field that he didn't want to get hurt, and he was afraid of messing up.

A light shudder passed through him. Maybe things had been easier when he didn't have anyone to care about...

But then he thought of Yuzu again, her arms wrapped around him in a hug after he had won his last qualifying duel for the Maiami Championship, the way that her voice squeaked a bit as she squealed with congratulations. The way that, for the first time, Sora had felt completely _safe_ in those arms.

He steeled his resolve. Okay. Time to go.

He went for the fire escape on the side of a building, springing up and latching onto it, swinging himself up. He climbed that up to the building—luckily, Security hadn't taken to sweeping the roof tops yet. He could make this work.

He darted across the space between buildings, landing as silently as he could. Didn't want them to look up. He glanced down into the alley before jumping across to the next building. The abandoned warehouse he had hidden Yuzu in wasn't far. He hoped she hadn't woken up yet...she would probably be confused and disoriented from having been moved. He wanted to be there when she woke up so that he could explain things.

And that was when he heard the cry.

He skidded to a stop before jumping over the next building, almost toppling over the edge before he caught himself. His eyes flashed down into the corridor and—

His blood ran cold. Oh _no_.

Yuzu stood pinned against a wall, surrounded on the other three sides by Security officers with Duel Disks glowing. She hugged a trio of kids to her as though she could protect them, eyes wide, almost watering with frightened tears as the Security officers advanced.

"You need come with us," one of them said. "Nice and easy. We don't have to do this the hard way."

"Go to hell you Tops trash!" one of the kids shouted, trying to break free of Yuzu's grip with his fists out. Yuzu gripped him even tighter, pulling him against her even as her eyes flicked around desperately for an opening.

Sora's teeth showed as he found a snarl growing in the back of his throat. He bolted from the rooftop, grabbing window sills on the way down. As soon as his feet hit the ground safely he was ripping cards from the top of his deck.

"I activate Polymerization! I fuse the Fluffal Bear and Edge Imp Scissors in my hand to Fusion Summon Frightfur Bear!"

His monster appeared in a swirl of color, screeching as it stumbled forward with scissors snapping.

The Security officers were one hundred percent not prepared for Sora's interference. It took him all of two minutes to take all three of them out—geez. These guys were terrible. If they didn't all use the exact same deck, they might actually be a challenge.

With the three officers left unconscious on the ground, Sora let his arm drop to his side. He briefly considered carding them but decided that there was no time. He just ran back towards Yuzu and grabbed her arm.

"Come on, Yuzu! We have to go!"

Yuzu stared at him, wide-eyed for a moment. Then her eyes flickered down to the kids, the unconscious Security officers, and then she let Sora start to pull her down the alley, herding the kids along with her other hand. Sora chafed at the pace—the kids were babbling and poking at him and trying to get him to tell them what was going on. He would have just as soon left them behind but he already knew Yuzu would argue with him and didn't have the time to do that with her. Best to find cover, and then he could convince her to ditch the zoo.

He pulled the group into a small building. This one, too, was abandoned, and the door was mostly rotted away so it wouldn't close all the way. It was a horrible position, entirely indefensible, but Yuzu was limping and Sora thought at the back of his head that she was probably injured from that crash and if that was the case he needed to get her sitting down somewhere so he could take stock of the damage.

He cleared a space in the wreckage of the broken down building, and then propped up a few boards in front of the door so that they wouldn't be seen from passersby. He noted the other potential exists, including the rickety stairs that would lead to the roof, and then turned around to check on Yuzu.

She was on her knees, comforting the smallest of the boys.

"Sh, sh, it's okay. They're not going to chase us. It's okay."

Sora hesitated, then.

It felt like it had been years since he had last saw her, and not just a handful of days. He felt somehow...nervous. As though Yuzu might look up at him and see all of the things that he had been doing and then maybe...maybe look upset. Or disappointed with him. He didn't...he didn't know if he could handle that.

And then Yuzu looked up at him. Met his eyes straight with her own, and he felt that strange warm sensation flooding through him again. _Safe_.

And she _smiled_. He felt a flutter rush through him, relaxing his shoulders and causing him to let out a sigh.

"Thank you," she said. "I don't know what we would have done if you didn't show up...none of us had Duel Disks..."

Sora shrugged, grinning as he put his hands behind his head.

"It was nothing. That's what friends do, right, Yuzu?"

And that was when he saw it. The flicker in her eyes, the way that her smile faded slightly, her brows drew together and her lips parted.

"Yu...zu?" she said. "Is that..."

Her hand raised up to her lips, pressing against them for a moment, her eyes far away.

"Yuzu?" Sora said, his arms dropping to his sides "Yuzu, what...are you okay?"

Yuzu came back to herself, looking at him, brow furrowed with thought. Sora froze, then, and knew exactly what had happened just as her mouth opened and she spoke the confirmation.

"I...I'm sorry," she said. "But...but who is Yuzu?"

It felt like the floor was opening up underneath him and swallowing him.


	2. Chapter 2

The boy's whole face seemed to crumple. She hesitated, biting her lip—had that been the wrong thing to say? He did look...familiar? Yes, familiar, like some kind of deja vu, but...she couldn't remember...

Her head stabbed with pain and she gasped, closing her eyes.

"Neesan, are you okay?" Frank asked her.

She opened her eyes and tried to smile.

"Y-yes, I think so..."

The other boy with the blue hair was still just standing there, hands shaking at his sides.

"Y-Yuzu," he said. "Please don't play games...it's not funny..."

She felt her heart clench at the look on his face. She didn't like seeing that look, so sad, and hurt, and shocked. She tried to stand up, reaching for him instinctively, like she should try to hug him or something.

But her leg protested and she gasped, collapsing back to the floor.

Immediately, the blue haired boy was at her side.

"What's wrong? Where does it hurt?"

She winced.

"M-my leg, mostly...and my _head_..."

She moaned in spite of herself, in spite of her trying not to scare the kids about her condition, her hands gripping her head.

"D-don't push yourself," the boy said, putting his hand on her knee. "Let me see. Okay?"

He started to prod at her leg with careful fingers.

"Tell me where it hurts."

She gasped when his fingers reached her knee.

"There, right there, it—oh, _oh..."_

"Dislocated," the boy said, his voice suddenly taking on a clinical, professional sort of tone, his eyes almost glazing over with distance. "I'm going to reset it. It's going to hurt. Ready?"

She swallowed and nodded. He didn't give her a count to three, or anything. He just did it. She almost screamed, but she shoved a fist into her mouth to still the sound—there were still people outside, still people that were after her. For...for some reason. She couldn't remember why...

The boy sat back on his heels, sighing.

"Anything else? Cracked ribs? You had quite a fall..."

She blinked.

"I...I did.…?"

The boy's eyes fixed on her. She couldn't tell what he was thinking. There was something of a sadness there, a hurt, a fear...but other things, too, that she couldn't place.

"What do you remember?" he asked her.

She blinked. Her mouth opened.

"Nothing," she said. And then panic washed through her as she finally took the time to realize that that was true. "Oh, _god_ , I don't remember—anything—"

She grabbed at her head, her breaths coming short and tight. Her chest felt so heavy. Her heart was pounding too fast.

She didn't remember anything. Not a name, not a home, not a family member or a friend, or—what was she doing? Where was she? There was—there was something important—something that she was supposed to be doing—

"Yuzu!" the boy said, grabbing her arms. "Yuzu! Please—calm down! Breathe, okay? You have to calm down."

Her eyes were bubbling with tears and she couldn't stop herself from hyperventilating. Nothing—she had absolutely nothing. She didn't know _anything_.

"H-How do you even know that I'm this Yuzu?" she said. "H-how do I know that that's—that's my _name_?"

His hands gripped hers tightly, and she could feel his hands trembling along with hers.

"I know," he said, his voice cracking. "I know, Yuzu, I know, I know, I know...please...please just—trust me. Please."

She shook as she lifted her eyes to meet his. Those clear green eyes held her gaze. They were glazed with the shine of tears too, and his jaw was clenched, his lips parted with distress. She hesitated, staring at him for a moment. His soft, round face, childish and young, jaw trembling with tears that he refused to cry, his shoulders drawn tightly up beside his ears, nose crinkling in an attempt not to cry as his pale blue bangs fell over his eyes.

She raised her hands to his face, cupping it for a moment.

"Oh," she whispered. "I...I know you, don't I...?"

He gripped her hand on his face, and a single tear escaped one eye.

"Y-yeah, you do—you do. D-do you remember?"

She just held him for a moment, staring at him, trying to _force_ it, trying to remember everything.

But nothing would come. Just a frustrating feeling of familiarity. She almost broke down sobbing again, she could feel it rising up inside of her, and wanted desperately to release the wave of terror that was building up.

But she caught his eyes again, that too young face that was trying too hard not to cry, shoulders shaking as though he weren't _allowed_.

And she just wanted to make sure that he didn't cry.

She pulled him into her arms instinctively, pressing him against her like he was her child, woken up from a bad dream. He stiffened briefly. And then he sobbed, pressing his face into her chest, his fingers curling into the fabric of her shirt, shoulders still shaking but still not letting himself fully cry. She stroked his hair gently, instinctively.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry...I want...I want to remember..."

She swallowed and pressed her face into his hair, as though that might make her remember.

"W-will you help me remember?"

He nodded into her chest.

"Sora," he whispered.

"What?" she said.

"Sora...it's Sora. My name is Sora. Because you forgot, you dummy. How could you forget your teacher..."

"Oh?" she said, blinking. "You...you're my teacher?"

He nodded again, hugging her tighter.

"Y-you wanted me to teach you how to fusion summon. So that you could beat Masumi. In the tournament. Because you had lost before, at the Duel School."

So many words and names that fluttered just out of her reach. She wanted to reach for them, grab them, but they slipped out of her as soon as they arrived. She could feel that nostalgia washing over her with each word, but nothing would stay. Nothing would wake up again.

She swallowed and hugged Sora tighter.

"Do you remember?" he asked.

She almost lied. But she couldn't bring herself to.

"No," she whispered. "I...I don't."


End file.
